The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (LDS) is under pressure to change a long-standing policy of obeying, honoring and sustaining the laws of the home countries of church members.
Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff has joined illegal immigration activist Tony Yapias in an attempt to pressure the LDS Church into opposing laws designed to control illegal immigration and to prevent the vast majority of illegal aliens from committing extremely serious felonies including document fraud, perjury and identity theft. (See end of this story for more information about the scope and incidence of these felonies).
Shurtleff’s and Yapias’ demands go directly against previous statements of LDS President Thomas S. Monson who wrote about the importance of obeying the laws of the land in 1988 and again in 2007.
Writing in the Ensign, (1988 March, First Presidency Message, In Quest of the Abundant Life), President Thomas S. Monson, Second Counselor in the First Presidency wrote:
"Let us not overlook obedience to the laws of the land. They do not restrict our conduct so much as they guarantee our freedom, provide us protection, and safeguard all that is dear to us.
In our time, when otherwise honorable men bend the law, twist the law, and wink at violations of the law, when crime goes unpunished, legally imposed sentences go unserved, and irresponsible and illegal conduct soars beyond previously recorded heights, there is a very real need to return to the basic justice that the laws provide when honest men sustain them."
In Examples of Great Teachers, (Liahona, June 2007), President Thomas S. Monson
First Counselor in the First Presidency wrote:
"For many years as a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, I had responsibility for East Germany, also known as the German Democratic Republic. In this assignment, my knowledge of the Articles of Faith was most helpful. On each of my visits throughout the 20 years I supervised this area, I always reminded our members in that area of the twelfth article of faith: “We believe in being subject to kings, presidents, rulers, and magistrates, in obeying, honoring, and sustaining the law.
In the early 1980s, when we sought approval from the government officials to build a temple there, and later when we asked permission for young men and women from that area to serve missions throughout the world and for others to come into their country to serve missions, they listened and then said, “Elder Monson, we’ve watched you for 20 years, and we’ve learned we can trust you and your Church because you and your Church teach your members to obey the laws of the land.”
President Monson’s statements concerning the former East Germany are all the more compelling because East German church members were consistently encouraged by LDS authorities to obey, honor and sustain the laws imposed by a ruthless, communist dictatorship.
On the other hand, Shurtleff’s and Yapias’ demands are based on the premise that individuals unlawfully in the United States should be allowed to violate U.S. immigration and associated laws that they deem to be unfair.
They are, therefore, asking the LDS Church to take a social justice position and to oppose laws that are designed to address the criminal activities of people who are unlawfully in the United States.
In addition, Shurtleff and Yapias would apparently have the LDS church tell its illegal immigrant members that they are free to disobey immigration and other laws that they believe to be unfair regardless of the harm done to the victims of their crimes.
The LDS church currently leaves it up to elected officials to make their own well thought out decisions on immigration that reflect compassion for not only those violating the laws but more importantly for the victims of illegal alien driven crimes including an estimated 50,000 Utah children and more than one million Arizona children and their families who are the victims of illegal alien driven, employment-related identity theft.
According to the LDS church’s website:
"The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints recognizes the complexities facing elected officials as they grapple with the implications of immigration law, such as employment, security and budgetary considerations. The Church has not taken a position on this issue, which is clearly the province of government. However, Church leaders have urged compassion and careful reflection when addressing immigration issues affecting millions of people.
Elected officials who are Latter-day Saints make their own decisions and do not represent the position of the Church regarding immigration legislation. The Church recognizes that these officials make their own choices based on their best judgment and with consideration of the constituencies whom they were elected to represent."
* * * * *
While advocates of illegal aliens compare illegal entry to a simply traffic violation, they ignore the fact that the vast majority of illegal aliens commit serious felonies in order to obtain jobs.
The Social Security Administration estimates that 75% of illegal aliens have fraudulently obtained Social Security numbers. This is a felony.
Illegal aliens falsify I-9 forms under penalty of perjury in spite of an explicit warning that providing false information can result in fines and prosecution. This is a felony.
Finally, illegal aliens commit identity fraud (felony) under Utah law when the Social Security numbers they are using belong to another person. It is estimated that 50,000 Utah children are the victims of this crime and 1,626 employers were found to be paying wages to the Social Security numbers of Utah children under age 13.
These children have their good names ruined, credit destroyed, are saddled with arrest records, denied public benefits and may even have their medical records corrupted with life threatening consequences.
Comments
Shurtleff’s and Yapias’ demands are based on the premise that individuals unlawfully in the United States should be allowed to violate U.S. immigration and associated laws that they deem to be unfair.
And these are the people we want to reward with citizenship, with an attitude like that? I hope the racist illegal advocates realize how they hurt their cause with stupid statements like this. Unreal!
You forgot to mention that the Church has sent leaders to Utah congress to come up with Humane and compassionate laws tours immigrants, and where Elder Ballard pushed for in-state-tuition for immigrants in Utah. If you will write an article, it's always nice to point both sides of what the church has done and not just two statements that aren't as directed as the Church's later actions in Utah.
Are you kidding me? The best social justice we could employ here would be to send back to their homes, all those peoples who are in this country illegally. Send them back by the thousands or millions. Let them stand as a witness to others who are being sold "the land milk and honey," only to come to this country and be less than third class citizens. Slaves to the wealthiest in this country. Send them home so they can warn and convince others who are saving thousands of dollars for the chance to hire a coyote to smuggle them into the land of freedom just to experience slavery. Thousands of years ago slaves were shackled and displayed on crates for sale, today they line the streets of southampton NY waiting for a truck to pick them up! You want social justice? Send them back to their contries and save another generation of slaves from the wealthiest Hampton living rich! You want social justice? Invest and improve their countries, take the blessing of freedom and spread it!
right on let the unemployed mormans have there jobs.thats the way it should be
So how does Shurtleff and Yapias answer the question of: " are you honest in your dealings with your fellow man"? being illegal is being dishonest. Do it right as I had to when I came to this country. I can answer the question with sincerity and that makes all the difference.
the church dont care about honesty its only money they want and lots of it.next its sex lots of that to..next its lyes thats the way it started.if those illegals kill some one then the church makes money on the funeral.owners pay tithing on there gross.funeral homes in ut.are owned by mormans
The citizens of Mexico and other countries need to stay in their own countries and fight of freedom over there... If they want to come to America, come the legal way... Breaking the laws of this country is not the message we need to be sending to our children...If we want to help, we need to make new laws that will help people come here legally...
What a load of crap. You are haters, and you will be judged as such.
and you are one of them stupid mormans that have your head up y--- a-- and cant think for your self..follow the profit
The only reason there is a movement (against the will of the majority) to legalize millions of Mexican citizens residing in the US is to add this huge voting block to the rolls of the Democrat party. The politicians couldn't care less about the daily lives of these non-citizens. But they have fought so hard to give them access to schools, health care, welfare, surely this proves the politicians really care? No they don't. They only want the associated votes that they think they get when an Hispanic US citizen sees his cousin being take care of by our Democrat politicians. Sorry to be so down on politicians, but that's the way I see them.
Should any church or religion offer sanctuary, and support to illegals? No!
Do you want to employ Mexican citizens? Then offer them legit jobs, help them get green cards, bus them here and then bus them back when the job's done. If he likes it here, let him apply for citizenship and get in line with everyone else.
How does advocating change in the law become disobedience to law? Shurtleff is not advocating disobeying law--he is advocating changing it.
Another issue: The Church currently calls undocumented ("illegal") migrants on missions. Federal immigration law provides that the Church can do so without violating any law. For those who support SB 1070 (which contains no such exemption for the Church), do you believe that the federal law should be changed so that it is a potential criminal violation for the Church to call such a person on a mission?
The idiots that espouse selective compassion for those who knowingly dissed our laws, people and culture need to take responsibility for the pain and hardship they have encouraged. Real American workers are losing cars, homes and paychecks do to felonies casually committed by illegal aliens. You fools that support liiegal aliens have their harming crimes on your hands.
"They took our jobs"
"Dur der der der"
The productive people of the world will thrive when the "free lunches" stop being free. The tumor that is government must go.
Immigration in not a national issue, unless welfare, education, roads, military, etc etc etc is.
Immigration is about a class of human who doesnt pay into the system yet receives some benefit. I wish I was one of them.
Let them stay if theyre productive and let them die at the end of an Arizona pistol if they deserve it (determined locally). Lets roll back government and stop giving out handouts.
People must work to survive. Americans are no exception.
DEAD ILLEGAL MEXICANS ARE GOOD MEXICANS ASK JOESY FOX FROM DELTA UT SHERRIF THAT THEY KILLED
Legal Immigration is next to impossible. There is no real way for people to apply for the legal way.
The legal process requires more than $2,000 in fee's plus more than a year waiting process for the approval of the application to return.
How do you expect Mexicans to do this. I did this for my wife, I brought here in Legally. Not everyone can do this, only a very select few might be able to do this. Mind you my wife is not your average Mexican either, she comes from a well off family.
People get their visa denied based on appearance, a Church member that is a friend of ours wanted to get her visa to visit his son in the states. She tried to get her legal tourism visa and was denied without any explanation at all - and she had all the documentation for the process - someone just looked at her and said you are not getting a visa (good bye).
You can always count on white people in Utah to deliver the dumb and racist goods.
There is no question that undocumented U.S. immigration is illegal. Among illegals there are many countries represented. So why is everyone assuming that only Mexicans are here illegally. That is called racial profiling and that is the real danger. Is this country reverting to the 50's & 40's when "no colored allowed" signs were everywhere.
For anyone to receive entitlements or "benefits" the individual has to come up with a SS number. Many times those cards are provided by employers themselves So prosecute the employers that are hiring the undocumented. With that card the employer should also withold taxes and SS.
For years the US has supported countries around the world, let the US help their neighbor improve their economy and clean up their drug traffic. (US, stop using drugs, simple.) On the same token fine the Mexican government for every person that crosses that border into the US illegally.
I don't really see how the name calling is going to help. I think that we should just enact the same immigration laws that Mexico or Guatemala have and be done with it. My daughter had her identity stolen by a Hispanic and it cost her a lot of money and time fighting for her name back, and still it crops up to haunt her.
Let's not call them illegal aliens.
Let's call them future Obama voters.
There is a difference between obeying, honoring and sustaining the law and opposition to it. Disagreeing with a law, lobbying to change it, is NOT disobeying, dishonoring and failing to sustain the law. If people want to lobby the Church to take a stand on any law, that might happen. It has certainly happened before. If people want the Church to stop teaching people to obey, honor and sustain the law, good luck waiting on that one.
RE: lareina says: @ 6:58 am 13Jul2010
"Are you kidding me? The best social justice we could employ here would be to send back to their homes, all those peoples who are in this country illegally. Send them back by the thousands or millions."
.
I live in SoCal. To where would you send me and the many others of us now here illegally? From a strictly obeying-and-sustaining-the-law viewpoint, we are living in a system created by illegal immigrants whose armed insurrection overthrew the existing legal authority and turned this area over to control of the USA. All this means that under Mexican law, we are illegal immigrants who complain because citizens of the legal authority overthrown by criminal insurrectionists now seek to return to this area.
YAH BUT YOU MEXICANS DIDNT FIGHT VERY HARD FOR YOUR LAND AND YOU DONT HAVE THE GUTS TO CHANGE YOUR COUNTRY.YOU JUST WANT TO SET AROUND AND DRINK BEER AND COMPLAIN..GET OFF BYOUR ASS AND FIX YOUR COUNTRY
Shurtleff is not trying to change the law (as some have said), that is not correct. As stated in the post, he is OPPOSING laws that would provide for enforcement of already established laws. What he's doing is trying to prevent enforcement of laws on the books so that they can continue to be violated with no consequence.
If that isn't an incentive or, at very least, a green light to ignore/break the law, I don't know what is.
As for $2000 being cost prohibitive for legal immigration, think again. The average charge to cross illegally is about $2500, according to the NY Times (economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/05/18/the-rise-in-mexican-smugglers-fees/). Certainly, the process needs to be streamlined but visa fees are not the issue for illegal crossing.
Sharron Angle wants to abolish the SSA, and with it I-9 forms, and for that matter SSNs. If you do that, then none of the actions you allege illegal aliens do regularly would be done, and therefore they wouldn't be committing felonies. What then?
The only LDS members who need the LDS Church to re-define the LDS "moral stance"....are the "members" who have disagreed with what that stance has always been.
If the politicians were to pressure the LDS Church into making a "political stance" then they can nail them because of that. It sounds like the politicians are just playing games to try to get the LDS Church to loose their non-profit status.
This is next to bribery---if you don't change your "moral" position then we will manipulate you into taking a "political" position and put you out of business. Same as Pelosi's promise---if we can't get what we want legally....then we will do it another way....but we will get what we want in the end.
The LDS church has already taken a political stand-by their actions. They baptize illegal aliens, not only here-but nationwide. They have spanish-speaking missions all over the nation. This, of course, is in direct contradiction of their Article of Faith, and their temple recommend interview, that requires the member "obey, honor and sustain the laws of the land". Illegal aliens, of course, would normally debarred from baptism becaue they are in obvious violatio of the laws of the land.
WHEN YOU EXSAMIAN THE TRUE HISTORY OF THE CHURCH WHY IN THE HELL WOULD ANY BODY WANT TO JOIN THE FALSE CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST BROTHER SATEN
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